Last summer I bought a motorcycle in Duluth, MN and rode it down to Austin, TX (ok, well, to Oklahoma City from where it hitched a ride in a U-Haul, hey it's a road trip and it was a used bike off Craigslist). I was mostly unplugged apart from the maps app (which is not how I plan on doing it next time, next time I plan on having physical maps, maps that can't die on you, move to an irrelevant portion of the trip, or otherwise randomly turn from a navigation device to a screen saver).
"No Vacancy" signs were absolutely welcomed sights. They also just made it all the more visceral. Could I have pulled over, opened an app, and reserved a room online in less time and perhaps at a lower price, absolutely. Then, I could have followed the "map's" directions directly to this place and called it a day. Instead, I had to keep my eyes peeled, take in the city, maybe figure out where the main drag was.
We need to stop pushing efficiency and start making space for discovery. My trip down the middle of our country, that deep red cut of Trump support, I got to see it all. I was a Hillary voter, but, can honestly say I understand a bit of the reasons those states went the way they did. Riding an old motorcycle through the heart of our country, and then using an app to make my hotel reservation, or staying at some cookie cutter hotel instead of the local places I chose, that'd just have been a non-sequitur. I might as well not even have made the trip.
I would have missed the camp grounds, the fellow motorcyclists helping me with engine trouble, the welder that fixed my chassis, finding out that Nebraska is basically one big corn field, the super-hero of a motel clerk that let me sleep at the indoor pool when i showed up at 1am soaked and freezing and there were actually zero rooms left in the small town, the motorcycle club (shout-out to the Amber, OK Outsiders!) that put me up for a very drunk night after electrical issues, and the many other folks I met. But I didn't. It was awesome.
I've found navigating by sign much easier by any sign anyhow.
Maps can break down at the most critical points: multiple exits happening in quick succession, exits followed by forks, the GPS reading you the entire sign contents which just serves as a distraction more than anything, etc. Not to mention now there is a screen you have to pay attention to!
If you know where you're going and the general route to get there (i.e. which highway to get onto), following by sign is much easier. Cities are exceptionally well marked. It's a low-tech solution that just works. And yes, no worries about the signs dying or losing signal or crashing.
> finding out that Nebraska is basically one big corn field
Duluth, MN > Autin, TX is a straight shot down I-35 the entire way. There is definitely a lot of corn growing in Nebraska but you must have been very lost or deliberately going way out of route. Sounds like a fun trip though.
Family In S. Dakota. And taking back / farm roads all the way, because they are much more friendly to enduro-style motorcycles. Wasn't out of way. Was't lost. Just taking the long way home. It's kinda like you missed the entire point of my comment.
"No Vacancy" signs were absolutely welcomed sights. They also just made it all the more visceral. Could I have pulled over, opened an app, and reserved a room online in less time and perhaps at a lower price, absolutely. Then, I could have followed the "map's" directions directly to this place and called it a day. Instead, I had to keep my eyes peeled, take in the city, maybe figure out where the main drag was.
We need to stop pushing efficiency and start making space for discovery. My trip down the middle of our country, that deep red cut of Trump support, I got to see it all. I was a Hillary voter, but, can honestly say I understand a bit of the reasons those states went the way they did. Riding an old motorcycle through the heart of our country, and then using an app to make my hotel reservation, or staying at some cookie cutter hotel instead of the local places I chose, that'd just have been a non-sequitur. I might as well not even have made the trip.
I would have missed the camp grounds, the fellow motorcyclists helping me with engine trouble, the welder that fixed my chassis, finding out that Nebraska is basically one big corn field, the super-hero of a motel clerk that let me sleep at the indoor pool when i showed up at 1am soaked and freezing and there were actually zero rooms left in the small town, the motorcycle club (shout-out to the Amber, OK Outsiders!) that put me up for a very drunk night after electrical issues, and the many other folks I met. But I didn't. It was awesome.